Refrigerator

ABSTRACT

A refrigerator which includes a main body having a storage chamber and an evaporator mounted inside the main body. The main body includes an inner case defining the storage chamber, an outer case forming an exterior appearance, and a heat insulator filled between the inner case and the outer case. A reinforcement sheet having a shape corresponding to an outer surface of the inner case is mounted to the outer surface of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator to reinforce the inner case. Accordingly, noise generation due to deformation of the inner case can be minimized. And, the manufacturing process of the main body can be simplified, thereby increasing productivity.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application Nos. 2006-0114808 and 2007-0054432, filed on Nov. 20, 2006 and Jun. 4, 2007 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a refrigerator. More particularly, to a refrigerator which is capable of preventing abnormal noise due to deformation of an inner case.

2. Description of the Related Art

A conventional refrigerator includes a main body having a storage chamber, a door hingedly mounted to the main body for movement between opened and closed positions to access the storage chamber, and a cooling device mounted to the main body to cool down the storage chamber. The cooling device includes an evaporator, a compressor, a condenser, a refrigerant expansion unit, and pipes connecting these components. The evaporator is located in the storage chamber, and the compressor, condenser, and refrigerant expansion unit are located in a machine chamber.

The main body is configured as an insulation wall to maintain temperature in the storage chamber. The insulation wall includes an inner case which defines the space of the storage chamber, an outer case which forms an exterior appearance of the main body, and a foam heat insulator which is filled in the space between the inner case and the outer case.

Since the evaporator is disposed near the inner surface of the inner case, when the temperature of the evaporator decreases, the temperature of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator also decreases. Thus, the inner case adjacent to the evaporator is subjected to contraction deformation. And, the contraction deformation of the inner case intermittently causes noise. The noise results from the phenomenon that the inner case and the foam heat insulator are made from different materials, and their deformations due to the temperature change differ.

Conventionally, in order to prevent the above-mentioned noise, an adhesive paper tape is stuck to the outer surface of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator in fabricating the main body. When the inner case and the foam heat insulator are deformed in different degrees from each other by the temperature change, slip is generated between the outer surface of the inner case and the foam heat insulator by the adhesive paper tape, and the noise generation reduces.

However, sticking the adhesive paper tape to the outer surface of the inner case is very troublesome and makes the manufacturing process complicated. Also, when the adhesive paper tape gets loose, or is stuck unevenly, it is difficult to achieve the sufficient noise reduction. Further, because the curved portions are formed at the outer surface of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator, it is difficult to stick the adhesive tape evenly to the outer surface of the inner case.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a refrigerator which is capable of minimizing noise generation due to the deformation of an inner case by reinforcing the inner case adjacent to an evaporator.

It is another aspect of the invention to provide a refrigerator which is capable of increasing productivity thereof by simplifying the manufacturing process.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing a refrigerator including a main body having a storage chamber and an evaporator mounted inside the main body, the main body including an inner case defining the storage chamber, an outer case forming an exterior appearance, a heat insulator filled between the inner case and the outer case, and a reinforcement sheet which has a shape corresponding to an outer surface of the inner case and is mounted to the outer surface of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the reinforcement sheet is made of a material having a higher strength and lower contraction deformation from temperature change than a material of the inner case.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the reinforcement sheet is made of a material different from the inner case, the material of the reinforcement sheet being acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resin.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the reinforcement sheet includes a tensile strength greater than the inner case by approximately 1.5 times or more.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the reinforcement sheet is formed with a reinforcement bead.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a refrigerator in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a reinforcement sheet of a refrigerator in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a reinforcement sheet of a refrigerator in accordance with other embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.

As shown in FIG. 1, a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a main body 10 which includes a front-opened storage chamber 11, and a door 12 which is hingedly mounted to the main body 10 for movement between opened and closed positions to access the storage chamber 11.

A multi-stage shelves 13, on which foodstuffs are loaded, are mounted inside the storage chamber 11. An evaporator 14 to cool down the storage chamber 11 and a cool air circulation fan 15 to circulate the inside air in storage chamber 11 are mounted to a rear portion inside the storage chamber 11.

The evaporator 14 is disposed adjacent to the rear wall of the main body 10. An inner panel 17 is mounted in the front of the evaporator 14 to partition the evaporator-mounting space and storage chamber 11 and form a cool air circulation path 16. The inner panel 17 is formed with a plurality of cool air supply ports 18, through which the cool air flowing in the cool air circulation path 16 is dispersedly supplied into the storage chamber 11. The cool air circulation fan 15 is disposed over the evaporator 14 and blows the cool air having passed by the evaporator 14 into the cool air circulation path 16, so that the air in the storage chamber 11 circulates via the evaporator 14.

A machine chamber 20 partitioned from the storage chamber 11 is provided at the lower portion of the main body 10. A compressor 21, a condenser (not shown), and a refrigerant expansion unit (not shown) are mounted inside the machine chamber 20.

The main body 10 is configured as an insulation wall to maintain the cooling temperature in the storage chamber 11. The main body 10 comprises an inner case 31 which defines the space of the storage chamber 11, an outer case 32 which forms the exterior appearance of the main body 10, and a foam heat insulator 33 which is filled in the space between the outer case 32 and the inner case 31. The door 12 to open and close the storage chamber 11 is also configured as an insulation wall.

When fabricating the main body 10, the inner case 31 is prepared by shaping a resin board, and the outer case 32 is prepared by cutting and bending a metal board.

The inner case 31 and the outer case 32 are coupled with each other and put into a foam mold (not shown). Then, the foam heat insulator 33 is poured into the space between the inner case 31 and the outer case 32. When the foam heat insulator 33 is solidified, after a predetermined time has elapsed, the integrated main body 10 is completely manufactured. Also, the door 12 is manufactured by the above-process.

On the other hand, in the process of manufacturing the main body 10 as above, a reinforcement sheet 40 is mounted to the outer surface of the inner case 31 adjacent with the evaporator 14 to partially reinforce the stiffness of the inner case 31. Before pouring the foam heat insulator 33, the reinforcement sheet 40, which has been previously prepared, is stuck to the outer surface of the inner case 31 adjacent to the evaporator 14.

As shown in FIG. 2, the reinforcement sheet 40 is shaped corresponding to the outer surface of the inner case 31 adjacent to the evaporator 14 so that the inner surface of the reinforcement sheet 40 comes into close contact with the outer surface of the inner case 31.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, this structure provides the convenience of easily sticking the reinforcement sheet 40 to the outer surface of the inner case 31, thereby simplifying the manufacturing process of the main body 10. In comparison with the conventional adhesive tape method, the work effort for the refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention decreases. In practice, the work hour taken to manufacture the main body 10 when performing the reinforcement sheet sticking process according to the present invention can reduce by about 50%, compared with the work hour when performing the conventional adhesive tape process.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the reinforcement sheet 40 is made of a material having a higher strength and lower contraction deformation from temperature change than the material of the inner case 31. This is for enabling the reinforcement sheet 40 to reinforce the inner case 31 adjacent to the evaporator 14, to thereby minimize the deformation of the inner case 31 from the temperature change. According to an embodiment of the present invention, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin is used as the material of the reinforcement sheet 40. Further, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the tensile strength of the reinforcement sheet 40 is larger than the tensile strength of the inner case 31 by approximately 1.5 times or more. For example, when the tensile strength of the inner case 31 is 4 kgf/mm², the tensile strength of the reinforcement sheet 40 is set to be 6 kgf/mm² or more. When making the inner case 31 and the reinforcement sheet 40 of the same material, the reinforcement sheet 40 is formed thicker than the inner case 31 or provided with a reinforcement bead 41 as shown in FIG. 3.

As described above, since the reinforcement sheet 40 reinforces the inner case 31 adjacent to the evaporator 14, although the temperature of the inner case 31 adjacent to the evaporator 14 decreases abruptly from the temperature drop of the evaporator 14, the deformation of the inner case 31 can be minimized. Accordingly, the abnormal noise generation due to the deformation of the inner case 31 is prevented. According to the experimental results, the noise reducing effect of the present invention is improved by approximately 60%, compared with the conventional noise reducing structure (the adhesive tape structure).

As apparent from the above description, the refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention is constituted such that the reinforcement sheet having the shape corresponding to the outer surface of the inner case is stuck to the outer surface of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator. Accordingly, the manufacturing process of the main body is simplified and productivity increases.

Also, since the reinforcement sheet reinforces the inner case adjacent to the evaporator, the deformation of the inner case can be minimized despite the sharp temperature change. Accordingly, the effect of reducing the noise due to the deformation of the inner case can be improved.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents. 

1. A refrigerator, comprising: a main body having a storage chamber and an evaporator mounted inside the main body, the main body including an inner case defining the storage chamber, an outer case forming an exterior appearance, and a heat insulator filled between the inner case and the outer case; and a reinforcement sheet which comprises a shape corresponding to an outer surface of the inner case and is mounted to the outer surface of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator.
 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the reinforcement sheet is made of a material having a higher strength and a lower contraction deformation from a temperature change than a material of the inner case.
 3. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein the reinforcement sheet is made of a material different from the inner case, the material of the reinforcement sheet being acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) resin.
 4. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein the reinforcement sheet comprises a tensile strength greater than the inner case by approximately 1.5 times or more.
 5. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the reinforcement sheet comprises a reinforcement bead.
 6. A refrigerator comprising: a main body comprising a storage chamber and a door hingedly mounted to the main body to access the storage chamber; an evaporator disposed adjacent to a rear wall of the main body; an inner case which defines a space of the storage chamber and an outer case which forms an exterior of the storage chamber and a foam heat insulator which fills the space between the outer case and the inner case; and a reinforcement sheet which comprises a shape corresponding to an outer surface of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator, and is mounted to the outer surface of the inner case to reinforce a stiffness of the inner case, and to thereby minimize deformation of the inner case.
 7. The refrigerator according to claim 6, wherein the reinforcement sheet is stuck to the outer surface of the inner case adjacent to the evaporator prior to pouring the foam heat insulator. 